With the Disney film "Raya and the Last Dragon" I started thinking about the various adventure films that came before it. I also started to get a little sad thinking about how few adventure films there have been in recent years. There are a lot of science fiction, fantasy, and superhero movies in the film industry, but films about lovable rogues hunting down lost cities and discovering treasure in the remote areas of the world are far and few between. As a big fan of such films, I feel I should discuss their popularity and why they should make a comeback.

We all remember certain adventure films, such as the "Indiana Jones" films, "The Goonies", and even "The Pirates of the Caribbean" films. These are the films that we think of when we think, "adventure film". Ancient lost cities, buried treasure, and racing to the prize against ruthless villains. The appeal of adventure films is in the name, it's an adventure. Much like fantasy films, adventure films allow an audience to go on wild, exciting, and action packed journeys that they could never have (or want to, given the danger involved) in real life.

These are the elements that turned me on to the genre. I loved watching the "Indiana Jones" films growing up as a kid and I even dressed up as the title character for several Halloweens. However, I feel like the younger generation grew up with "The Pirates of the Caribbean" as their primary form of adventure film. While these films are still being made, they have taken a noticeable dip in quality with the more recent films. This has left a massive hole in the adventure genre that has yet to be filled.

Adventure films have great potential in storytelling and can fit perfectly in today's world. For example, one of the biggest criticisms of the genre is that the "heroes" we follow are technically just thieves. Indiana Jones may be an archaeologist, but he "acquires" his artifacts by going to other countries and plundering them. Newer adventure films could flip this on its head by making the hero a local archaeologist trying to protect the artifacts from being plundered by rich foreigners. You could also give the main character an arc where they go from trying to obtain the treasure for personal gain, but then they learn the cultural importance it holds to the natives and they selflessly give it back to it's people (like the end of "Temple of Doom").

Adventure films give us wild and exotic locations that we could never visit or explore in a million years. They are thrilling roller coaster rides of films that keep us on edge and hoping that everyone makes it out alright. These are the kinds of films that got me interested in movies and the potential they had to transport us to different times and worlds. These films give people a desire to explore and seek out knowledge, which is why they desperately need to be brought back.